Indian Rocks report

[Oceandvr]

Hi Everyone!

I was out of Indian Rocks this past Wednesday. Depth of 65' on a natural ledge. Vis was about 10 meters. Lots of moon jellies, some hogfish, a few scamp, a surprisingly large resident lizardfish, several blennies and gobies. Lots of other fish too, but I was too busy counting motile inverts within my quadrats - snails, crabs, urchins, etc. You know how work goes. Bottom temp was 84. Overall it was a nice dive. The ride there and back was another story though...the swells were brutal.

 

[Capt. Ty]

Umm.... was that vis 10m or 10' ?

 

[Oceandvr]

10m about 33 feet. We have our transect lines set up every 10m and I could see from one line to the another. Vis wasn't pefectly clear, but it was decent.

 

[eandiver]

That's great visibility for that close to shore.

 

[Oceandvr]

We were about 18-20 miles out and the swells were awful, but it's always better under the water.

 

[eandiver]

True. It's better to be awful swell than to have swells that were awful.

and I haven't even had a beer yet

We were diving near Egmont Key in about 15' of water when a freighter went by in the channel. We heard the sounds of engines and props but what got us was the wake. Lifted sand about 3' off the bottom and moved us about 4' side to side for a couple of minutes. Very cool ride.

 

[Oceandvr]

That's funny about the swells. Would've been much better if we were awful swell and not having swells that were awful. Actually, I think it's the boat we use...we need a new one.

Wow! That's crazy about the freighter moving you and the sand around. Makes me wonder if that happens each time a freighter goes by and how much it influences the surrounding benthos. Hmm.

I haven't been diving off Egmont Key -- what's there to see?

 

[Missdirected]

Those are some good links in your sig

 

[eandiver]

Think about the wave action.....the channel is deep with sharp edges and the waves pile on the strength as the hit shallow water. Must double their strength as they go shallow.

Ships, storms, tides, they all influence the bottom and that's why it's a constantly changing enviroment.

Not much to see off Egmont...we were looking for some hard bottom (fishing) but ended up with a lot of false echos from the bottom sounder. Good excuse to dive but nothing to see.

 

[Oceandvr]

Absolutely it's a changing environment. Sometimes our sites are covered in sand and other times they look pretty good. It's quite the interesting habitat.